On the Massachusetts North Shore

248 High Street, the William Spiller house (b 1850)

The “William Spiller house” north of the Clam Box

At the corner of Mile lane and Rt. 1, where the Clam Box now stands, Nehemiah Jewett Jr. owned ten acres of land. He married Sally Jewett of Ipswich on October 22, 1795, and built a dwelling on the lot and occupied it with his family until his death.

The history of the site is given by Waters in Ipswich Village and the Old Rowley Road under Lot 19 (pp. 49-61). Jewett’s heirs sold the house and acreage to William B. Spiller in December, 1838, who is assumed to have built this house. The 1832 map shows the owner as Jewett, but the 1856 map shows the owner as Spiller. It is assumed he built the present house soon after. Present architectural feastures suggest Greek Revival origins rather than the earlier Federal period. The house is listed with the Massachusetts Historical Commission as having been built in 1860 and the Ipswich database shows 1850. Mrs. Mabel V. Mitchell, wife of William A. Mitchell, inherited a portion of this property from her grandfather Spiller.